The Republicans' Catastrophic and Culpable Failure

As I write it is 3:00 am eastern time. I do not yet know whether the Republicans took back the Senate or how many House seats they picked up.

What I do know is that we are witnessing a massive and well-deserved Republican failure.  Under current conditions anything short of a tsunami would be an embarrassment. Republicans should be embarrassed.

I hasten to say I’m fairly embarrassed myself for not seeing it coming.

With 20-20 hindsight it’s clear we missed something really obvious:  The Republican Party is loved by few and disliked by many. Hardcore Trump loyalists don’t care much about the GOP and a majority of other Americans want nothing to do with it.  This is quite sensible on their part.

The GOP is dominated by two overlapping groups: the clueless and the compromised.

The clueless

The clueless have no idea how to get the country out of the mess it has gotten itself into, or if they have, mum’s the word.

There was not a hint from the GOP as a whole nor from most candidates individually that they know what to do about the economy. Republican fulminations about inflation show no insight into its causes and include all too much gloating over how bad it looks for Biden.

On the other hand, few of the Republicans who do understand what’s wrong are in a position to say much. They know it all comes down to disastrous pandemic policies that gutted the supply side of the economy and for which policies they are almost—I will grant them ‘almost’--as much to blame as the Democrats.

GOP candidates for governor or local executives generally fought a good fight on crime. But that’s an uphill battle: most of the crime is happening in places where Republicans are thin on the ground. Senators and congressmen can’t do much about crime making ,it a weak issue for them even if people are passionate about it.

On abortion one can’t fault the GOP too much for avoiding the issue and leaving Democrat attacks unanswered. The GOP has avoided the issue for 50 years.  It was legitimately difficult for them to not know what to say in the wake of Dobbs. Some articulate compromise will have to be worked out enabling the GOP to take advantage of Democrat abortion extremism but that will not be easy or quick.

Meanwhile Democrats especially in the bluer constituencies have been campaigning on abortion for decades. They have placed it at the center of the struggle over every Court nomination while Republicans did their best to deep-six the issue.

Republicans have to figure this one out. If they can’t really be blamed for not doing so yet, it is at least clear that GOP self-congratulation over the alleged Dem mistake of overfocusing on abortion was misconceived. You can’t have a tsunami without winning in lots of places you usually lose. Abortion seems to have motivated the Dem base in those places. If not for Dobbs Lee Zeldin would be governor of New York.

The compromised

As for the compromised, it’s all about Trump, who in the past 24 months has made the Republican Party repulsive.  

In 2016 I wrote that I would vote for the awful Donald Trump because Trump v Hillary was basically our thug against their thug. I felt no obligation to cede the field when it was thugs all around.

Trump went on to be one of the most effective presidents in my lifetime. I voted for him again in 2020. I think he would have had another good term (as second terms go).

Thus I plead absolutely innocent to the charge of electing him Former President, a role for which he has been a disaster.

Now he’s not even our thug. He’s just out there thugging for himself. The failure of the GOP to stand up to him is loathsome and most Americans loathe it.

Herschel Walker? How corrupt must the GOP be to run that criminal for the Senate?(He may win apparently.) And how can anyone not despise the GOP for doing so. Trump did that.

Let the sun shine

To all of this rant there is one bright shining exception: Florida, where there really was a tsunami. Florida has a leader who for four years has articulated—and acted upon—recognizable Republican principles that succeeded brilliantly for his state. Unlike Trump, who caved in the face of the pandemic (the one time in his Presidency he needed an idea of his own). DeSantis never flinched. He was clear, bold, even defiant and it worked for Florida.

There is not a trace of the thug about DeSantis (which may explain Trump’s lame nickname for him.)  I’ve heard him speak only once, for an interview with a local TV reporter during the hurricane. She asked tough questions about what appeared to be real if innocent mistakes in reaction to the storm. He never got defensive, never lost his cool. He was calm, conversational, intelligent, and informative. What a breathe of fresh air.

So here you are again GOP. You can make a choice or be an echo.